Monthly Archives: July 2023

Term of Art: Sight Words

Posted on July 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

“sight words: Words that are recognized instantly, without using word attack skills. The larger the sight-word vocabulary, the more fluent the reading process. Sight words are frequently used words that make up the majority of the written text, such as the, just, bad, from and about. The Dolch List is a well-known compilation of the 220 most often used sight words that average learners should know by the end of third grade. When an individual has difficulty recognizing common words by sight, reading is slow and laborious.”

Excerpted from: Turkington, Carol, and Joseph R. Harris, PhD. The Encyclopedia of Learning Disabilities. New York: Facts on File, 2006.

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Cultural Literacy: Zeno’s Paradox

Posted on July 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

Moving right along this morning, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Zeno’s paradox. This is a half-page document with a three-sentence reading and three comprehension questions. The first sentence of the reading does a nice job of defining paradox; however, beware the third sentence, which in forty-nine words (!) explains Zeno’s paradox of the arrow.

If I were a betting man, I would wager that emergent readers and learners of English of a new language will experience some challenges with either the turgid length of this sentence, or the relatively complicated ideas within it. In other words, caveat emptor, and get your editing pencil ready to prepare a shorter and more comprehensible version of this final sentence. I think you will probably end up with at least two, and possibly three sentences.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Gordian Knot

Posted on July 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Gordian Knot: An intricate problem. Gordias, a peasant, was chosen king of Phyrgia, and dedicated his wagon to Zeus. The wagon yoke was fastened to a pole so cleverly that it was said that whoever undid the knot would reign over the empire or Asia. Alexander cut the know with a single stroke of his sword. Cutting the Gordian knot became proverbial for the decisive, bold completion of a complicated action.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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The Weekly Text, 28 July 2023: Styling Sentences Lesson 1, A Series without a Conjunction with an Excursus on the Colon, Lists, and the Serial Comma

Posted on July 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text is a the first lesson of fifteen in the Styling Sentences unit, this one on a series without a conjunction with an excursus on the colon, lists, and the serial comma. This lesson opens with this Cultural Literacy worksheet on the grammatical concept of subordination, something, I think it’s fair to say, that anyone who needs to write well should know. Finally, here is the worksheet with comprehensive examples of the sentence structure under study.

Unlike most of the materials related to writing instruction you will find on this blog, this material is relatively unsupported. There are no modified cloze exercises (though, in reviewing this material, I understood how to go about preparing some, a maneuver that stymied me when I first contrived this unit), simply mentor sentences from the text from which I derived much of the material in this unit to guide students in composing sentences of their own.

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Posted in English Language Arts, Independent Practice, Lesson Plans, The Weekly Text, Worksheets

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Prospect Park South

Posted on July 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Neighborhood in northwestern Brooklyn (1990 pop. 28,991), covering sixty acres (twenty-four hectares) and bounded to the north by Church Avenue, to the east by the tracks of the “D” and “Q” subway lines, to the south by Beverley Road, and to the west by Coney Island Avenue. Once owned by the Dutch Reformed church of Flatbush, the area was developed in 1899 by Dean Alvord after the extension of rail service from Manhattan and downtown Brooklyn. He planned the neighborhood to resemble a spacious suburb, engaged John Aitkin to provide landscaping, and established stringent architectural standards. The houses are set back thirty feet (nine meters) from the sidewalk; many were built at the turn of the century in a variety of styles, including Georgian, Prairie, Queen Anne, Elizabethan, neo-Tudor, Pediment, Japanese, Colonial Revival, French Revival, and Mission. A strip of land eight feet (2.4 meters) wide lies between the street and the sidewalk for planting. The streets are lined with trees, and Buckingham and Albemarle roads have central planning malls. The neighborhood is upper middle class and the main commercial thoroughfares are Church and Coney Island avenues.

Excerpted from: Jackson, Kenneth T. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995.

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Posted in New York City, Quotes, Reference, Social Sciences

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Cultural Literacy: Zoning

Posted on July 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

OK, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on zoning. This is a half-page worksheet with a one-sentence reading and one comprehension question. A short introduction to a big and controversial subject that ultimately involved the Supreme Court in 1926 in the Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty decision. It’s easy to see how sensible zoning might have prevented this horror show in West, Texas (yes, the town is called West, and I don’t refer here to the larger geographical region of West Texas), or this one in Northwest Houston seven years later.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Ditmas Park

Posted on July 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Neighborhood in west central Brooklyn (1990 population 12,719), bounded to the north by Dorchester Road, to the east by Ocean Avenue, to the south by Newkirk Avenue, and to the west by East 16th Street. It was modeled after the adjacent neighborhood of Prospect Park South by Lewis Pounds, who developed it in the early twentieth century. The Ditmas Park Association was formed in 1908 and enacted special zoning provisions to preserve the character of the neighborhood, which in 1987 was designated a Historic District. Ditmas Park is a middle-class neighborhood of 175 large, detached frame houses on tree-lined streets. Among its notable buildings are the parish house of the Flatbush Tompkins Congregational Church, the former Brown house (1000 Ocean Avenue) and the Community Temple Beth Ohr (1010 Ocean Avenue).

Excerpted from: Jackson, Kenneth T. The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven, Yale University Press, 1995.

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Concepts in Sociology: Ageism

Posted on July 25, 2023 | Leave a comment

The lead story from Mark’s Text Terminal on this already hot day concerns the operation’s recent move. I didn’t go far–just a ten-minute walk from where I have lived for the past two years. I am now in the Midwood section of Brooklyn, about two blocks from Brooklyn College. This is a very nice area adjacent to the sublime precincts, from south to north, of Fiske Terrace-Midwood Park, Ditmas Park, and Prospect Park South. Since I’m an old guy now, this, I expect, will be the last place I live.

So it struck me as a fine synchrony when I found the second worksheet of a series of 69 general conceptual documents for a sociology class last year was this worksheet on the concept of ageism. It’s a full page worksheet with a reading of four longish sentences and three comprehension questions. If it looks like it was put together on the fly, believe me, it was. However, this could be edited down to a half-page do-now exercise, or expanded with some critical questions. Because this worksheet is formatted in Microsoft Word, you can adapt it to your classroom’s needs. More than enough said.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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Thomas Szasz on Adulthood

Posted on July 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Adulthood is the ever-shrinking period between childhood and old age. It is the apparent aim of modern industrial societies to reduce this period to a minimum.”

Thomas Szasz

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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Common English Verbs Followed by an Infinitive: Expect

Posted on July 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a worksheet on the verb expect as it is used with an infinitive. In the future, I expect to use better judgment when producing curricular material.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

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